Gary Myers of the New York Daily News puts the crimp on the Giants this weekend, writing that there’s no way the Eagles will go into East Rutherford and knock off the G-Men.

This will be an NFC East slugfest Sunday at Giants Stadium because it always is.

Giants 23, Eagles 13.

It should be noted that last year, right here in your Daily News, I not only predicted each of the Giants’ four playoff victories, including the huge upset of the Patriots in the Super Bowl, but had the margin of victory just about on the nose each week. Just wanted to point that out.

The Giants were the best team in the NFC all season despite losing to the Eagles and Cowboys back-to-back in December. But when they faced their only must-win of the season on that Sunday night against the Panthers in the battle for the No. 1 seed in the 15th game, they rallied to send the game into overtime and then won it.

This is a tough-minded team. Doesn’t mean the Giants are sure things to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but they do have a lot of heart, and it’s going to take a near perfect game from the Eagles to knock them out of the playoffs.

The Giants are the best at finding a cause that doesn’t even exist and not letting go. Even after winning the Super Bowl and going 12-4 and being picked by many to run through these playoffs and win it all again, they still feel disrespected. It’s ridiculous, of course, but it works for them.

Fair enough, but let’s take a look at the facts:

A) The Giants haven’t played a complete game in over a month. (Week 13 in a 23-7 victory at Washington to be exact.)
B) Eli Manning hasn’t passed for over 200 yards since Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg.
C) The Eagles have the third best defense in the NFL, including the fourth best run defense.
D) Philly has already proven they can beat the Giants in New York.

I’m not saying it’s a slam-dunk Eagle victory, but this is no time to be predicting wins days before the game.

One last thing Myers might want to chew on is that Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote before the Falcons’ playoff game last week that they would beat the Cardinals in Arizona. He poured a big cup of jinx all over the Falcons and I’m afraid Myers might have just done the same thing to the Giants.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger practiced Monday and will start this Sunday against the San Diego Chargers in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said today he passed his final post-concussion test and will play on Sunday when the Steelers open the playoffs against the San Diego Chargers at Heinz Field.

Roethlisberger left the Steelers final regular-season game on Dec. 28 with a concussion just before halftime. Roethlisberger is taking the field this afternoon to practice for the first time since his injury.

He said he’s taken several tests over the past week, that he feels fine and will take no further precautions.

The Steelers’ offensive line needs to protect this guy or else there’s a great chance we’ll be seeing Byron Leftwich sometime this postseason. For as good as the Pittsburgh defense is, the Steelers’ offensive line has issues and Big Ben has always had problems hanging onto the ball too long. Regardless, this is great news for the Steelers and this is a great example of how big having that off week is in the playoffs.

The San Diego Tribune is reporting that Chargers’ running back LaDainian Tomlinson could miss the remainder of the postseason with a groin injury.

While they’re using phrases like “day to day” and “we’ll see,” no one in the Chargers organization truly expects LaDainian Tomlinson to play Sunday at Pittsburgh.

But the Chargers will not place Tomlinson on injured reserve, in the hope that he still could play in the postseason.

“He might be able to play in another week if we were able to go on,” coach Norv Turner said. “Or maybe he could play in another week after that.”

The likelihood, according to sources, is that Tomlinson’s severely strained groin will keep him out the rest of the postseason and will require surgery. But Turner reported Sunday that the injury “is not any worse” after Tomlinson played on it Saturday.

Good thing for Darren Sproles. If they can, the Chargers are going to have to lock up Sproles in the offseason or if they can’t sign him, draft a back that can be the future. Maybe with a full offseason of rest, LT can bounce back and be productive again next year, although it’s doubtful that he’ll ever be as productive as he was during his MVP days. It’s time for the Chargers to think about the future.